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Summary

Shows how Chinese intellectuals with varying politics envisioned the peasantry and its role in changing society during the first half of the twentieth century.

Xiaorong Han explores how Chinese intellectuals envisioned the peasantry and its role in changing society during the first half of the twentieth century. Politically motivated intellectuals, both Communist and non-Communist, believed that rural peasants and their villages would be at the heart of change during this long period of national crisis. Nevertheless, intellectuals saw themselves as the true shapers of change who would transform and use the peasantry. Han uses intellectuals’ writings to provide a comprehensive look at their views of the peasantry. He shows how intellectuals with varying politics created images of the peasanta supposed contemporary image and an ideal image of the peasant transformed for political ends, how intellectuals theorized on the nature of Chinese rural life, and how intellectuals conceived their own relationships with peasants.

"This is the most comprehensive and thoughtful treatment I have read of what has been one of the most pivotal and consuming themes besetting Chinese intellectuals in the twentieth century. Given the continuing disproportionate size of the Chinese peasantry, even today, this is a topic that will be of continuing interest. Concentrating on the history of the theories on the topic, Han’s very important intellectual work will be well received and influential for years to come."  Stephen Uhalley Jr., University of San Francisco

Xiaorong Han is Assistant Professor of History at Butler University.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
Acknowledgments

1. Introduction
2. The Intelligentsia, the Peasantry, and the Chinese Nation
3. The Image of the Peasant
4. The Nature of Rural Society
5. Patterns of Intellectual-Peasant Relations
6. Conclusion